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Interviewing, and the Importance of TSQL vs. Management Studio
Wanted to share some more comments on the TSQL vs. Management Studio debate – and how it plays into what you may be looking for in a candidate.
Jeff: "To me, this would only be a no-go *if* the person was unable to *anything* via T-SQL. Personally, I like to know the underlying commands because I gain a better understanding of how things work (including options/parameters that may not be easily accessible via a non-command line interface). That doesn’t mean I keep the BOL in my head. I know WHAT I want to do and usually I know the general syntax of the command but not always. This is exacerbated by the fact that I support multiple RDBMS vendor products.
However, and this may be lazy, if I need to do an on-demand backup I don’t want to type out the command. I want to click-click-click-OK and be done with it. Doesn’t mean I couldn’t type out the command but I just don’t want to.
As with so many things I think you need to be flexible here. Don’t tie yourself into a single way of doing things. Use whatever tool(s) make sense and are available."
Bill: "My question would be how many of these people who won’t use SSMS drive a car with an automatic transmission? If they can’t use a stick shift, they shouldn’t be allowed to drive."
David: "Tricky topic…
Well for the automation folks, Mangement Studio is where you can build and setup stored procedures to run seamlessly and automatically, so I am not sure why this would not be acceptable. I guess you could write tsql in a batch file and connect using the DOS interface and Windows scheduler, but what would that really get you? Scheduled jobs in SQL server make automation easy and track execution history.
Locks and Blocks guy, Management Studio is not the best way to understand what is happening, but short of having tools such as Idera or Quest, just how would you look at these and troubleshoot them? There was no mention of “other “ DBA tools, so are you expecting just running queries or writing your own application? Really, what is your answer?
I have been a DBA for almost 20 years, and I agree that Management Studio is not the end all tool, but it is a tool that has a great deal of validity. I was around when Microsoft rolled out SQL Server 4.2, where everything was scripted and there was very little insight into what was going on with the server. If that is what you think is a great situation, then so be it. In the mean time I will use a combination of tools, Management Studio being just one, and have a fully automated enterprise system, that is easily manageable, easily monitorable, and a historical accounting of all of the executions with respect to run times, CPU utilization, disk I/O, other resources and outcomes.
I have a proven industry wide track record of dramatically improving all things SQL Server, and to just toss out Management Studio is like throwing away all of your socket wrenches from your tool box. It may not be the premier tool, but it is worth having in the tool chest!"
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